Semper Fi
by xX Harbinger Xx
Summary: The story of a small Special Forces team's fight for survival against a brutal GLA onslaught. This story is about the heroism of the soldiers that fought this battle on Hill 42 and elsewhere and is told by every side of the conflict. Hope you enjoy
1. Chapter 1

**Main American Base, 1400 hours**

"Sir," Lt. Major Albert Johnson said. He was the air commander for the local American air bases. "Recon flights are complete and all aircraft returned home."

"Good, good." said Four-Star General Robert McGhee, the overall commander of US and Chinese forces in the area. "What did you find?"

"We spotted two oil derricks and a bunker about fifteen minutes flight time northeast of here. It's the only two in the local area and could help us in supplying out forces sir."

"Any GLA in the area?" McGhee asked.

"Yes sir, but only a small garrison: mainly Rebels, four Technicals, and a Tunnel Network entrance."

"Send in two Raptors to destroy the Tunnel Network while Bravo Team moves in to secure the area."

"Yes sir!"

**Bravo Team, 1410 hours**

"Ready…March!" ordered 1st Lt. Douglas Woodland, or 'Wood' for short. He was Bravo's leader, a team of the best Rangers, Missile Defenders ('MDs' for short), and Pathfinders in this army. Each one was the highest ranked soldiers in the area; all were Veterans.

"Sir, orders from Command." Informed Sgt. Bill Nelson, another from Bravo and Second-in-Command to Woodland, "We need to head out to oil derricks spotted a few miles out."

"Alright." Woodland said. He turned to his men and shouted, "Bravo! Move out!" The ten Rangers, six MDs, and four Pathfinders ran towards the four HUMVEEs Bravo had (they too were Veterans). They were Special Forces HUMVEEs, which were outfitted with TOW missile launchers as well as machine gun. Bravo could handle anything with this equipment.

**Small GLA outpost, half-way between American base and oil derricks, 1420 hours**

"Jarmen Kell reporting"

"What do you see Kell?" General Ababil responded.

"Four American HUMVEEs, heavily armed, heading for the oil. Should I engage with my forces?" He was referring to the two Rocket Buggies and three Quad Cannons under his personal command.

"Negative Kell. Let them pass; we will destroy them in the trap."

"Roger that." Jarmen Kell said. He pulled his forces back into the Tunnel Network entrance, continuing to watch the American forces until he couldn't anymore. He saw two Raptors overhead heading for the same direction as the HUMVEEs and watched as they shot missiles towards the oil derricks.

**Bravo Team, 1430 hours**

"Contact!" shouted one of the soldiers. The convoy of Special Forces was at the base of a hill codenamed 'Hill 42' because it was 42 feet tall. A foot patrol of five Rebels was quickly gunned down by the Rangers and the HUMVEEs. Afterwards, the rest of the GLA force came against them and a few minutes of intense fighting resulted in the GLA being wiped out. One of the Technicals managed to escape the area and head back to the GLA base while the Americans captured the hill and set up defensive positions. The MDs and some of the Rangers filled the bunker while the snipers had positions around the perimeter along with the HUMVEEs. The six Rangers not in the bunker stayed close to the oil derricks to protect them from any GLA counterattack.

"Do you see any enemy around here?" Woodland asked one of his men, a sniper by the name of Larry Henderson.

"No sir, none here." Henderson replied, "But I doubt we could hold any counterattack that might come unless we receive reinforcements."

"True." Woodland said. He picked up his radio and called in for reinforcements. A short conversation later, Woodland told him that McGhee would send a squadron of five Crusaders to help and that they would take 20 minutes to arrive. The Chinese forces are also sending two Troop Crawlers with their Red Guard to help as well. In the meantime, they had to find a way to hold out without the tanks' help. The troops dug in to protect themselves from any GLA units that might be coming.

**Local GLA Base, 1440 hours**

A badly damaged Technical drove past the base's defenses and stopped right in front of the Command Center. General Ababil appeared and asked the driver of any news he brought. He told the general that the Americans took over the oil and that everyone but him were wiped out by them. Ababil wanted to know what was the number of troops used by the Americans during the attack and what they were doing. The driver told him that he only saw the same people Kell saw and that he didn't see any follow-up reinforcements coming. General Ababil was pleased by this and ordered the driver to rest while he put his plan into action.

Ababil went back into the Command Center and gathered his officers together in his office.

"The Americans have taken the bait and captured the oil derricks." Ababil announced, "This is the perfect time to strike. What does the latest recon show?"

His Intelligence Officer (IO for short) said, "They have a force of around thirty Crusaders and some number of HUMVEEs at their main base as well as air bases. The entrance to the base is protected by two Patriot Missile sites and two Comanche helicopters. There is a Chinese base near the Americans, but it appears that they only have an air base and defensive forces. You already know what's going on at the oil derricks and there's nothing else besides those forces already mentioned."

"That is good." Ababil replied, "I want you guys to send your forces around the oil derricks to block any possible reinforcements from entering the area. Set up checkpoints on the roads leading to the oil derricks and deny use of their air forces by use of Stinger sites and Quad Cannons. Make sure the men at the derricks don't get out. Send in a force of infantry to attack the derricks as well."

**Bravo Team (Oil Derricks), 1448 hours**

"Wood, come here!" shouted a Ranger in one of the HUMVEEs. Woodland went to it and the Ranger pointed to the radio in the truck.

"Yes?" Woodland asked, "This is Lt. Douglas Woodland."

"Woodland, the Crusaders were ambushed by GLA forces and none survived the attack. The Troop Crawlers suffered the same fate. We can't get reinforcements to you."

Woodland was shocked that the tanks could be knocked out so easily. "Well why can't you send them by helicopter instead?"

"The anti-air capability of the GLA is too strong; the reinforcements would just be shot down far from your position."

"What about the rest of the army? Couldn't they just break through GLA lines?"

"Yes they could, but the base is being attacked by a huge GLA force and we have to use them to defend the base or else the whole place will be under GLA control."

From the outside, he heard gunfire. He looked outside and saw that a force of at least a hundred Rebels was trying to overrun Bravo's position. "Look, we have GLA coming and attacking us from everywhere. Try to get somebody to help us sometime in the next few minutes please!" HE dropped the radio's phone unit, picked up his M16 assault rifle, and jumped out of the HUMVEE to assist his fellow soldiers in the fight.

The snipers were doing a great job at killing the attacking GLA, but there was simply too many for the snipers alone to handle. The HUMVEEs and even the Rangers had to engage the incoming Rebels as they came closer to the derricks. The fight lasted for a good eight minutes before Bravo could defeat the GLA force. Nobody was killed in this battle, but Woodland sensed that this was only the beginning and he went to work to desperately secure reinforcements for his team.

**Spartanburg, South Carolina, 1450 hours**

"Honey! Come back inside for lunch." shouted Nicole Woodland. It was time to eat and her son, Bradley, was playing a game of soccer with his friends from school. He told his friends that he would be back soon as he walked into his house for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Meanwhile, his mother was cleaning the living room, waiting for a phone call from a location about ten thousand miles away in Turkey. Nicole wanted to talk with her husband since today was when he was able to make a call home from his base. She was happy for him since he now has the job he had always wanted ever since he finished college just a few short years ago. He had made a promise that at every opportunity he got, he would reach her and at the end of his deployment, he would return home and most likely not go back again. All Nicole wanted was to be held in his arms again after a long six months overseas and she was pretty sure that was what will happen in two weeks, which would be the end of the deployment time he had.

**Shanghai Squadron, Chinese Air Force, 1500 hours**

The squadron of four MiGs was having a meeting for the mission they were about to do a short time later. They were one of the two squadrons that were stationed at the Chinese base within the local area of the Americans and Bravo Team.

"Okay, listen up!" the Base Commander, Two-Star General Yu Guang, said, "There is a team of Americans in trouble at a oil derrick site roughly thirty miles northwest of this base. They have been requesting reinforcements for the last 20 minutes now and the Crusaders sent by the main American base and the two Troop Crawlers sent by us are destroyed. The GLA have surrounded the team and they are in danger of being wiped out. The Americans are caught up in defending their base at the moment and they are afraid to use their air force to assist the team, so we'll have to go in and help out anyway we can. I need you men to attack any GLA between us and them and to answer to any Close Air Support (CAS) calls they make. Understood?"

The whole room replied "Sir yes sir!"

"Good, get to it."

Shanghai Squadron leader Na Fai rushed his pilots out to the hangers. They got into their MiG fighters and took off for the oil derricks. When they got into the air, they saw that the GLA had set up a roadblock between them and the team, so they decided to attack.

"Two Scorpions, a Quad Cannon, and some Rebels." Fai said, "Perfect target. Attack."

The four fighters dove down on the GLA position and went unnoticed until one of the MiGs opened fire on the Quad Cannon, destroying it instantly. The other three MiGs went after the rest of the targets and managed to destroy the whole area in seconds. They returned to base to reload their missiles and were took off once again, waiting for the CAS call to come in any time.

**Main American Base, 1500 hours**

"Fire! Fire at the War Factory!" someone shouted. A fire team was quickly taken to the War Factory and they fought the flames as the huge battle for the base continued on only a few hundred yards away.

Meanwhile, a Comanche team of two helicopters was fighting the incoming GLA tanks. "Scorpions at 11 o'clock to 3 o'clock. Engaging!" said one of the pilots. The other helicopter crew was shooting at tanks near the target tank of the first one. They then used their Rocket Pods to try to kill more of the enemy faster, but it only destroyed eight of the attacking Scorpions. There were around forty tanks trying to enter the base from this entrance.

At the second entrance of the base, a group of Crusaders were having better luck since they were facing mainly Quad Cannons and only a handful of tanks. They quickly took out the tanks and then went to work on the Quads. Ten of the 25 Crusaders retreated from the fight to help out the Comanches defend the northern entrance. Nearby, the Raptors from the air base were taking off to guard the third entrance to the base. All of the American forces that were to help Bravo team were now looking at a large GLA army that had the ability to capture or even destroy the whole base. The Americans fought with every weapon they could get their hands on at the base to survive the brutal attack.

**US Air Force base, 100 miles west of Bravo's position, 1500 hours**

Eight Nighthawk stealth fighters waited on the air field. Each was armed with two laser-guided missiles and was ready for combat. The pilots were told of Bravo's situation and are ordered to pave the way for the Crusader tanks to aid the Special Forces team. Right now, the only thing between the Crusaders and Bravo Team are two checkpoints. Each checkpoint has a Stinger missile site and four Scorpion tanks.

The Nighthawks would be divided into two flights of four jets; one flight for each checkpoint. Once the checkpoints are destroyed, the tanks could roll into the oil derricks and go into defensive positions. The only factor stopping this is the siege on the American base near Bravo. Until that is over, the pilots can only sit and wait, hoping that Bravo can hold out long enough for help to arrive. This is especially true for pilot Jim Henderson since his younger brother was attached to Bravo as a Special Forces sniper. The wait was killing Jim and he was ready to get in the air at a moment's notice to save a family member in such danger.


	2. Chapter 2

**Florence, South Carolina, 1515 hours**

A car turns off of 3rd Loop and pulls into a sub-division called Deerfield and then parks on a driveway in a house near 3rd Loop. A man who looked to be in his mid-50s got out of the car and walked inside the house, checking the mail as he went along. He was disappointed when he saw no mail from his son in Turkey; he thought that maybe he was on an operation and couldn't write right now but might be able to soon, so he felt a little better thinking like that. Opening the door was his loving wife, who greeted him with a smile and asked how his day was. He said that it was hot and the wife couldn't blame him; today was that of a typical South Carolina summer: humid, bright sun, and a toasty 100 degrees F outside for most of the afternoon.

His name was Larry Henderson Sr., the father of a Bravo Team sniper and a soldier during the Vietnam Conflict. His wife was Jenny Henderson, a formal naval nurse during the same period. They found each other when Larry was wounded by Vietcong fire in the jungle and was moved into a medical station where Jenny worked and from that point on, they couldn't be separated by anything. Today, Jenny works as a hair dresser and Larry goes to a factory outside of town during the morning shift.

"Anything from Little Larry?" Jenny asked, using the sniper's nickname from when he was a boy ten years ago. Now he is 22 years old and his mother still refers to him by the same nickname.

"Not today." Larry Sr. said with a slightly disappointed voice. He loves the fact that Larry Jr. is serving in the armed forces, but he doesn't really like how he seems to never have the time to write to his parents back home in Florence.

"Gosh, I hope he's alright." Jenny replied. She knew that Larry wrote back to his parents often, but she usually kept the letters away from Larry Sr. since most of the letters were about how bad the conditions were on the front line against terror and he even was starting to question the validity of this war, but it was odd for him not to write at all; usually, he would email them at around 2:30 in the afternoon. Hopefully, Larry Jr. was in too much trouble.

**Bravo Team (Oil Derricks), 1520 hours**

"We need air support! Anybody out there?" Woodland desperately demanded over the radio, "This is Bravo Team, we need support now!"

This time, the team was facing a force of ten Scorpion tanks and a dozen Technicals. The GLA was flanking the defenders and his soldiers were taking casualties. So far there were three wounded Rangers and two dead Rangers. The bunker was taking heavy fire, but was holding out. Woodland ordered the HUMVEEs to protect the sides from the GLA flanking maneuver, which was composed of mostly Technicals and one or two tanks. The HUMVEEs easily took care of the Technical threat, but the tanks were opening fire on them and suddenly, one of the HUMVEEs exploded into bits as a Scorpin shell found its mark; that's two more soldiers on his dead list.

Out of the blue, his calls for help were finally answered. A flight of four MiGs flew overhead and blasted away at the tanks attacking the bunker. The whole line of Scorpions was bursting into flames as the napalm missiles exploded around them. Thanks to the Chinese, most of his men were able to live a bit longer. The four 'angels' headed back to base while another flight of four relieved them to defend against another possible attack.

Because of this lucky break, Woodland decided to do some proper recon of the surrounding area to get a better idea of what he was up against. He signaled one of the HUMVEEs over and gathered two Rangers and two MDs. They all got into the HUMVEE and deployed a Scout Drone to further help out with the reconnaissance.

**Bravo Team (Scout HUMVEE), 2 miles north of oil derricks, 1526 hours**

"What do you see soldier?" Woodland asked one of the crew.

"Two Tunnel Network entrances off in the distance, sir. They're amassing a pretty large strike force, most likely against Bravo." The soldier replied.

"What forces do they have?"

"Ummm, there's some Quad Cannons, a few Scorpions, four Rocket Buggies, and a SCUD Launcher."

"Well, we might want to escape before they catch sight of us…" Woodland said. He didn't want the GLA to see them since they were within range of the Rocket Buggies and well within the range of the SCUD Launcher, but it was already too late; a GLA spotter saw them as the HUMVEE and its crew were spying on the force and he was calling the army to engage the scout. A volley of rockets soon was racing towards Woodland and his men.

"Drive dammit drive!!" Woodland shouted. The HUMVEE instantly sprinted away from its scouting position and drove towards the oil derricks. Even though the truck was running away from the GLA at speeds of 50 miles per hour, the rockets were faster than that and were closing in on the crew. They desperately tried to dodge the rockets by turning right and left, stopping as they turned in hopes of the missiles overshooting the HUMVEE and missing altogether, but they couldn't stop them from killing the soldiers. All of the rockets fired hit the HUMVEE dead center and Woodland, as well as everyone else in the truck, was killed either by the explosion or the fires that raged inside the HUMVEE seconds after impact. One of the Rangers managed to escape the burning wreak, only to face the full force of the GLA group as they raced down to the destroyed HUMVEE. He fired his M-16 wildly into the group, but one of the Quad Cannons quickly took care of him; within seconds of getting out, he was hit by some 67 bullets from the Quad and he was turned into Swiss cheese by the GLA.

**Bravo Team (Oil Derricks), 1535 hours**

"Where in the hell is Woodland?" one of the MDs asked. They didn't know that only a few miles away, Woodland was nothing more than a burning body laying in waste in the middle of a field. The MD turned his direction towards a foot patrol around the oil derricks. He gestured one of the soldiers in that patrol over to him.

"What is it private?" Bill Nelson asked.

"Sir, none of us has seen Wood in the past ten minutes. Shouldn't he be back by now?"

"Well, he should." Nelson replied, "In the meantime, who else are we missing?"

"The scouting team headed by Wood hasn't come yet, and we still need reinforcements."

"I'm working on that. "Nelson said, frustrated by the current situation. At this rate, he couldn't allow a single soldier to go down or they risked being defeated by the GLA. "In the meantime, we need to conserve ammo. Tell your men in the bunker that they are not ordered to fire unless they are fired upon."

"Yes sir." The MD said, and then left Nelson for the bunker.

**Chinese Base, 1540 hours**

"What is own current troop numbers so far?" Guang asked one of his officers.

"Sir," the officer responded, "We have around one hundred Red Guard, thirty Tank Hunters, fifteen Battlemasters, and five Inferno Cannons ready."

"Perfect," the general said, "Send them out to the derricks immediately."

"But sir, I don't think-"

"That's an order!"

The officer had no choice but to follow his commander's demands. "Sir!" he said, and then left the room after he saluted Yu Guang.

**Main American Base, 1540 hours**

"Bravo Team, report." McGhee said over the radio.

A few seconds of silence, then followed a noise over the radio. "This is Nelson of Bravo Team."

"How are you guys holding up so far?" the general asked.

"Sir, we are doing alright here. We have a few men MIA (Missing In Action), but right now things are quite."

"That's good to hear." McGhee responded, "Speaking of good, the GLA attack on us has ended. We lost a chunk of our tank forces though, so armored support might not by available at the moment. We will be sending two Chinooks with HUMVEEs and Rangers to reinforce you guys though."

Again, more silence. Seconds later, cheering can be heard over the radio as Nelson replied back to base, "Thank you for the troops McGhee, we were in desperate need for them."

"I'm pretty sure you do." McGhee said, ending the conversation.

**Chinese Task Force, heading for Bravo's position, 1547 hours**

The force of infantry, tanks, and artillery that were heading on the road towards the oil derricks was exactly what Bravo Team was asking for when they found themselves barely able to hold their defensive position against the GLA. They would be arriving at the derricks at an ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) of five minutes from now.

"Base said that our fighters cleared up this area not too long ago, but I still want you guys on the lookout for anything GLA." Sgt. Shin Tao, the commander of the task force, said. He was inside a modified Troop Crawler designed for command and control duties.

"Sir, we are getting light resistance about 200 meters to the right of the road. I'm going to deploy some of the Red Guard and Tank Hunters to dispatch these foes." One of his officers said over the radio.

"Roger that." Tao replied. Other than the minor counterattacks made by the GLA forces, Tao had nothing to fear in terms of not being able to reach the oil derricks and reinforcing Bravo Team. In the meantime, this would mostly be a long and quite trip since the infantry are not in Troop Crawlers, which mean that his tanks and artillery have to slow down to match the speed of the troops. With the GLA resistance, this would be even longer since he had to stop his force and wait for the Red Guard and Tank Hunters to get rid of these GLA fighters.


End file.
